Purple Polar Bear Silhouette Vector Illustration in Adobe Illustrator

CREATE THIS VECTOR PURPLE POLAR BEAR SCENE FROM SCRATCH! | Learn to use shapes, colors, and so much more to create this vector moonlit scene in this Adobe Illustrator tutorial.

In this Adobe Illustrator tutorial, we will begin with a sketch and work our way through creating this awesome polar bear illustration that was inspired by this piece of artwork on dribbble.com (Check it out! https://dribbble.com/shots/3698472-Bear-Nights) We will use many shape tools and the Pen tool to work our way through creating this and manipulating the light and depth of the illustration by adding shadow and highlight accents in all the right places. If you’re into illustration or just want to have some fun working on a random Illustrator project, this tutorial may be just the one for you!

Tags: Illustrator Tutorials, Illustrator Tutorial, Vector Illustration, adobe illustrator, illustrator, adobe illustrator tutorial, Illustration Tutorial, Moonlight, Stars, Logo Design Tutorial, Shape Tools, Gradient Illustrator Tutorial, Create Brush Illustrator, How to, tutorial, adobe illustrator (software), graphic design, Silhouette, Logo Design, Illustration, AI

Site Exclusive Tutorial Recording Notes:

Disclaimer: these are the actual notes I used to record this video and are written in a language you may or may not understand. Hopefully, you find them useful or cool.

1. Color palette:
2. #0d0d33 bear & foreground elements
3. #cd84e5 shadows on mountain (black to transparent gradient to be added to this)
4. #f0cef7 moon
5. #7133a0 dark edge of BG gradient, trees, center middle ground
6. #7342d8 second piece of middle ground
7. #da8ef7 mountain
8. #270740 top background shading gradient (set to Overlay)
9. Create 2560×1440 rectangle and fill with radial gradient #7133a0 > #f0cef7
10. Duplicate the rectangle and fill with #270740 > #270740  make it fade to transparent and set to Overlay
11. Draw foreground rock and hillside with the Pen. Set fill to varying shades of gray
12. Reference the sketch and draw two middle grounds
13. Reference the sketch and create a mountain shape
14. Duplicate the mountain shape and name that layer “Mountain highlights”
15. Create the glowing moon
16. Create ellipse, fill with #f0cef7, copy/paste in front and set to Screen @ 80% opacity, select Normal ellipse and Offset path 10px 3x and set each ring’s opacity to 25%
17. Group the rings with the moon and create a mask and fade the moon into the sky
18. Add color to the rest of the shapes we’ve drawn as well.
19. Create trees by creating three different triangle shapes that are almost in the shape of a pine/evergreen tree
20. Go Effect>Distort & Transform>Roughen and use 0.5% size w/ 35/in detail and vary these settings very slightly for the other two shapes to create a few trees to choose from
21. Fill all trees with #7133a0 and set each tree to 90% opacity and then start duplicating and resizing them to create trees on either side of the mountain. Group all trees together once you’ve placed them
22. Use the Pen tool (with smart guides turned on) to create the shadow side of the mountain peaks and fill with #cd84e5 and then duplicate and group these shadow pieces
23. Fill the duplicated shadows with a black to transparent gradient and set to Overlay @ 60% opacity
24. Refer to sketch and draw 3-4 highlights in the foreground and fill with white and set to Soft Light @ 15% opacity or so
25. Google around for bear image and trace with the Pen. Copy in the bear that I already have created and fill with #0d0d33 and place him on the foreground. Stretch of scale to fill as we want
26. Duplicate the bear shape and fill with a white to transparent gradient and use the gradient tool to make the highlight near the bear’s snout as light fades around it from the moon/mountain.
27. Create large, perfect circle and fill with #f0cef7 to transparent radial gradient and then transform the circle to cover the bulk of the graphics and set to Color Dodge @ 45% Opacity
28. Create some birds with the Pen tool and mix them up and rotate them a little and then sample the #cd84e5 color using eyedropper + Shift to sample that color to the stroke instead of the fill
29. Create a new 2560×1440 rectangle and fill with 50% gray and DUPLICATE IT AND SET IT ASIDE
30. Now, go Effect>Artistic>Film Grain and use the settings 10-0-10 and set the rectangle to Soft Light blend mode
31. Select the other gray rectangle and go Effect>Texture>Grain and choose “Contrasty” with 40 and 60 for the intensity and Contrast, respectively.
32. Find the Polar bear image and trace that
33. Start adding colors and building the gradients as needed
34. Also, note the blend modes and opacity levels
35. Create flock of birds and vary stroke size and duplicate, flip and twist birds to make a large group
36. Create a 50% gray 2560×1440 rectangle and add Film Grain
37. Duplicate the grain layer and change it to regular Grain until it looks good
38. Add large ellipse in center of doc and add the lightest pink–to–transparent radial gradient and set to Color Dodge @ 45% opacity ––– DO A VIDEO HIT CREDITING THE ORIGINAL ARTIST!!!! https://dribbble.com/shots/3698472-Bear-Nights